A poll of opposing candidates for Congress from southern California conducted by the Church Federation of Los Angeles contained the following answers to the question, "Should the wartime Fair Employment Practices Commission be made permanent?" by successful office seekers:

Twelfth District-Richard M. Nixon (Republican): "Yes; with necessary modifications in administration and policy."

Thirteenth District-Norris Poulson (Republican): “Yes.”
Fourteenth District-Helen Gahagan Douglas (Democrat): "Yes."
Sixteenth District-Donald L. Jackson (Republican): “Undecided."

Eighteenth District-Willis W. Bradley (Republican): "lieve in fair practices. Would be glad to have a commission authorized to enforce such practices *

**

Twentieth District-Carl Hinshaw (Republican): “Yes.”

Of the three unopposed Members of the House, Cecil R. King (Republican), of the Seventeenth District, and Chet Holifield (Democrat), of the Nineteenth District, were clearly on record for legislation such as Senate bill 984.

These Members of Congress truly represent the pronounced views of their constituents in favor of this vital legislation. In California, today, 11 percent of the total labor force are unemployed, but 30 percent of the nonwhites are without work. A check of the employment offices in the city of Los Angeles, for example, shows that Negroes, who constitute 8.6 percent of the population, comprise about 45 percent of the job applicants. Discrimination is prevalent, running from 20 percent on common-labor jobs to 100 percent in many skilled trades.

California cities cannot afford to maintain a permanent class of unemployed citizens because of discriminatory job practices. The price of maintaining such a group is too high in terms of public-welfare costs, police-protection costs, fireprotection costs, health risks, and injury to the public morals.

We urge the passage of Senate bill 984, therefore, in its original form, and without weakening modifications.

Senator DONNELL. Our next witness is Mr. Salert.

STATEMENT OF IRVING SALERT, FIELD DIRECTOR, JEWISH LABOR COMMITTEE, NEW YORK, N. Y.

Mr. SALERT. I am Irving Salert, field director, Jewish Labor Committee. I am testifying for Mr. Adolph Held, national chairman. Senator DONNELL. We have both of you listed, but you will present it.

You are field director?

Mr. SALERT. Yes, sir.

Senator DONNELL. Where is your home?

Mr. SALERT. My home is in New York.

Senator DONNELL. Do you mind telling us where you were born and where you have lived during your lifetime?

Mr. SALERT. I was born in New York City. I have lived in Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and Brooklyn. I have traveled over the 48 States of our Union and the Provinces of Canada.

Senator DONNELL. You have never lived in the southern portion of our country, however, except Virginia and Maryland; is that right? Mr. SALERT. That is right, sir.

Senator DONNELL. Now, what is the Jewish Labor Committee?
Mr. SALERT. May I read the statement, sir?

Senator DONNELL. Yes; but could you not just tell us?

Mr. SALERT. The Jewish Labor Committee, in whose behalf I am appearing here today, is a national organization consisting of over one-half million Jewish working men and women, and has affiliated with it every AFL and CIO union with a substantial Jewish membership.

Senator DONNELL. Now, Mr. Salert, I am not clear as to just what a commitee of over half a million people is; it may be just the name, the Jewish Labor Committee, that leads to that confusion in my mind, but I would like to ask you what is that organization. Is it a corporation; is it a voluntary organization?

Mr. SALERT. It is a voluntary organization of national unions, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union; the United Retail and Wholesale Employees, CIO; United Hatters and Millinery Workers, AFL; Textile Workers, CIO; the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, CIO; Workmen's Lodges, a fraternal order in America and Canada with over 70,000 members; the United Hebrew Trades, AFL; and other local unions that are predominantly Jewish in character.

On our board, Mr. Adolph Held is chairman; Mr. David Dubinsky is general secretary; Mr. Joseph Baskin is general secretary of the Workmen's Lodges. There are also 35 vice chairmen who are top leaders in AFL and CIO unions in the United States.

Among them are Mr. Louis Hollender, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; Abe Miller; Mr. Jacobs, president of the hat and millinery workers; and other such leaders.

Senator DONNELL. Would you tell us something, Mr. Salert, of Mr. Held, who was also to have been here this morning?

Mr. SALERT. Mr. Held for 20 years was with the Amalgamated Bank of New York. At present he is director of health and welfare for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union of the AFL, which takes care of approximately 400,000 working men and women in the United States and Canada.

Senator DONNELL. The bank to which you refer is one organized by the unions?

Mr. SALERT. The bank is the institution owned and controlled by the Amalagamated Clothing Workers of America.

Senator DONNELL. I see.

Do you speak of this Jewish Labor Committee as consisting of over one-half million men and women; do you mean that each one of those belongs to the Jewish Labor Committee or just the organizations to which they belong?

Mr. SALERT. That is right.

Senator DONNELL. How many organizations actually belong to the Jewish Labor Committee?

Mr. SALERT. About 117.

Senator DONNELL. About 117. Then the membership of those 117 organizations is the one in excess of one-half million.

Mr. SALERT. The membership of the 117 organizations make up about 3,000,000 men and women. The Jewish members

Senator DONNELL. Of those 3,000,000, one-half million are Jewish men and women. I see. All right; proceed, Mr. Salert.

Mr. SALERT. We believe in the American principle that every person willing and able to work has the right to a job commensurate with his ability. When this right is denied, then the confidence of our people in the efficiency of democratic government is weakened and the foundations of our democracy are undermined. How much more dangerous to American principles is the practice which one finds in some places of employment, of distinguishing between one group persons who are hired, promoted, and paid on the basis of ability, and

of

other groups who are denied jobs or the pay to which their ability entitles them because they belong to a disfavored religious, racial, or national grouping.

It is unnecessary for me to argue the justice of the Ives-Norton bill, or the fact that its passage is in the interest of the groups now suffering from discrimination. I am rather more concerned to point out that its adoption is in the interest of every productive American citizen. Discrimnation in employment strikes, to a greater or lesser extent, at every working member of the community. The cases of discrimination which have been handled by the Federal and State commissions prove that there is no group that is immune from discrimination. While substantial numbers of cases are recorded of discrimination against Negroes, Mexicans, and orientals, against Jews and Catholics, against Italians, Irish, and Slavs, the records also show that some members of any group you can name have been discriminated against in certain situations by one employer or another, so that even in the narrowest sense the proposed bill serves as protection for all races, religions, and nationalities.

In a broader sense, however, our whole history and the experiences of the war period has taught us that the attack on the rights of one group is a menance to the entire community; that when the rights of one section are denied, the rights of all others are in danger. For the majority of the American people who work for wages or salaries, the low standards and evil conditions which result from discrimination against one group continuously depress and menace the standards of all wage and salary workers in the Nation.

Our wartime experience proves that the employment of persons on the basis of ability, and regardless of nationality, race, and creed, is in the economic interests of the entire country. At no time has production been so great or efficient. There is no evidence that at any period in our history has there been greater harmony among workers in plants and offices. The evidence proves what common sense should have taught us, that if we draw our workers from the total labor force, entirely on the basis of ability, we will get the most efficient possible production and lower prices resulting from this greater efficiency.

The question of the preservation of peace in the world and the protection and extension of democracy abroad will be determined in part by the comparative world support which the United States will achieve as opposed to the U. S. S. R. The totalitarian forces of the world are working overtime at extending their influence. Arms play only a minor role in the extension of totalitarian influence today. The major role is played by propaganda. Throughout Central and South America, in India, Japan, and other Asiatic countries, in Africa, in Italy, in France, totalitarian expansion and the struggle against democratic forces is closely allied with anti-American propaganda. Every item of discrimination which can be shown to exist in the United States serves as fuel for the totalitarian propaganda machine. This propaganda machine, the most powerful in the world, rejoices at every discriminatory practice, at every racist influence which they can truthfully describe as present in the United States. We cannot fight propaganda with arms. We must fight it with truth.

We must be able to say and to demonstrate that in the United States, it is illegal to discriminate in employment against any individual because of his race, creed, color or national origin. Job discrimination

in the United States is doing more for the spreading of communism than can hordes of totalitarian agents. For America's role in world affairs, it is imperative that we assure our minorities equal treatment at home, and deprive our Nation's enemies of one of their most potent weapons.

I would like to bring to the attention of the committee members a bill which was made into law in the State of Saskatchewan, Canada, in April of this year entitled, "The Saskatchewan Bill of Rights." This small rural state of our northern neighbor has adopted a bill of rights which might well serve as a model for all the nations of the earth. This brief document of a few hundred words guarantees to each person: Freedom of conscience; freedom of religion; freedom of expression in speech, press, radio, and the arts; freedom of assembly and association; freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention; universal suffrage; freedom from discrimination in employment, compensation, and conditions; freedom from discrimination in the right to enter any occupation or business; freedom from discrimination in the purchase or rental of homes and real property; freedom from discrimination in admission to hotels, restaurants, theaters, and other public places; freedom from discrimination by professional societies, trade unions, occupational organizations; freedom from discrimination in educational institutions; and, the outlawing of any publication, radio broadcast or other communication which would tend to restrict the equal rights of persons because of their race, creed, color, or national origin.

Certainly, what this small state can do in behalf of justice, the great and powerful United States Government is capable of doing.

The principle, upon which the bill to prohibit discrimination in employment is based, was enunciated by the founders of our great nation in the Declaration of Independence, the proclamation of which has become the occasion for our greatest national holiday, Independence Day. In the Declaration, the pioneers of America's independence declared that they regard it as "self-evident that all men are created equal," and that among their "inalienable rights" are "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and "that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men." Certainly, discrimination in employment against any individual or group because of his race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry is a violation of the principle of human equality. Surely, the denial to a citizen of a job, promotion, or salary, which would otherwise be open to him, denied as a result of his color or religious creed, is the deprivation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Clearly, the founding-fathers of our Republic regarded it as a responsibility of our Government to protect citizens from such inequalities and deprivations. It is most appropriate that in this, the season in which falls our Independence Day, this Congress pass the bill which will do so much to achieve the goals of our Government as set forth by our great predecessors and will relieve one of the gravest injustices of which our nation has ever been guilty.

In the name of the Jewish Labor Committee, I ask you to report favorably Senate bill 984.

Senator DONNELL. Mr. Salert, how long have you been associated with the Jewish labor committee?

Mr. SALERT. October 1944; ever since I left the armed forces.

Senator DONNELL. Oh, yes; and what was your business or profession prior to going into the armed forces?

Mr. SALERT. I was New York State director for CIO Community Services.

Senator DONNELL. And how long were you with CIO Community Services?

Mr. SALERT. From its inception to the day I left for the armed forces.

Senator DONNELL. When was its inception?

Mr. SALERT. July 1942.

Senator DONNELL. So you were with the CIO and for about 2 years; is that right?

Mr. SALERT. That is right.

Senator DONNELL. And before that what had been your business? Mr. SALERT. Organizer for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; from 1936 to 1942.

Senator DONNELL. Is that a CIO organization also?

Mr. SALERT. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers?
Senator DONNELL. Yes.

Mr. SALERT. Yes, sir.

Senator DONNELL. What had you been doing before 1946?
Mr. SALERT. Going to college.

Senator DONNELL. Where did you take college work?

Mr. SALERT. New York University, city of New York.
Senator DONNELL. Graduate of that university?

Mr. SALERT. Yes, sir.

Senator DONNELL. What degree did you get?

Mr. SALERT. Bachelor of science.

Senator DONNELL. Very well, sir.

Are there any questions of Mr. Salert?

Senator ELLENDER. The witness has evidently had a lot of experience in the labor field. To what extent have Jewish people been discriminated against in New York?

Mr. SALERT. I have not any figures, but I do know that in the city of Rochester there was not a possibility for a person of Jewish faith or Italian Catholic to receive employment in one of the great industries of that city up until the war when the shortage of labor made it imperative for that organization to hire people regardless of their race, creed, or national origin.

Senator ELLENDER. What was that industry?

Mr. SALERT. Eastman Kodak Corp.

Senator ELLENDER. How many people did it employ?
Mr. SALERT. Approximately 5,000.

I think it was a lot more during the war years.

Senator ELLENDER. What was the reason assigned?

Mr. SALERT. There was no reason. they just did not hire; you just could not get a job. A Negro could get a job as sweeper, that is all. During the war years with the impact of war production, it was possible to receive employment in almost every industry. The FEPC helped; the trade unions did a good job in that respect.

Senator ELLENDER. Was the labor of that industry organized?
Mr. SALERT. No, sir.

Senator ELLENDER. Open shop?

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